Ascents in Tongariro National Park by John Pitcairn

Think Jonno strayed too far right, missed the spike, exited right instead of left. Getting hot and blowy, time to leave. Keen to return and lead it.

Terrific climbing, not too run out and there's no doubt gear I missed. Nervy moment after first bolt when I pulled a sizeable sharp flake off while starting the crux. Pockets full of wind-blown sand so missed those for cams, will remember a brush next time. Big overhanging chockstones at top a bit alarming. Must do again!

Nice lead from Jonno. Great route, reminiscent of Arapiles watchtower slabbing. Left the anchor in place for convenience.

Arrived with much less gear today but too few draws, improvised an extra couple. Think we climbed this, but didn't see a bolt so probably veered right and finished closer to Gruber. Rapped off a bollard.

Entirely on 5 slings as suggested. Easy climbing and good stances but you might want a bit more gear than that.

Trickyish start. Didn't float my boat.

Fun wee overlap. A bit mossy and dusty in the cracks, did a bit of scraping but mostly found alternate gear.

Really pleasant route, good gear. Walked 30km to get here.

Nice, good jamming. Cams to #4, doubles 1-3 useful but hexes will work. Was going to lead Complan but decided to save energy for drive home, went to see how Angela Stephen and Lenka were doing on bomb arete.

Really fun with a short section of compulsory hands and feet jamming. Doubles of .75 and 1 camalot would have been useful but big nut and hex placements can be found. Belayed from rope around the spike, abseiling from that is fine, didn't use the old slings or add another. A 70m won't get to the ground but a downclimb the last few meters is ok.

Nice crack climbing.

Sandbag? Crucial cracks at the overhang all slimy and unusable. Pumped, thought I was gonna die but the green totem basic held me on 2 undercammed lobes in a mossy flare, very surprised. None of us could find a way through the overhang, ShiChang eventually snuck around left to Trenchtown then runout and off route straight up and built anchor. I finished up past a thank god hand jam and cam then very runout to top. Type 2.5 fun, not keen to repeat.

Just a few degrees above zero, vicious wind chill, misty and threatening to rain. Four top layers, two bottom layers, brrr. So of course we went up. Fortunately the wind dropped a bit after the first pitch. Crux on pitch 2 is fairly committed for the grade, old school 16. Maybe try the extra alternate chimney pitch finish if you have time, but allow for a fair bit of walk-off route-finding time. Walk off is steep and my knee has not liked it. A fun adventure in a great setting.

A wandering little sucker with barely adequate pro until you enter the chimney, then found it very run-out at the top exiting the chimney. Grade about right but you need a cool head.